February 2015

February 11, 2015

Comments from the Chair, Robert W. Hastings

As we begin a new year, we welcome a new member to our Sierra Club Chapter Executive Committee. Charles Yeager, manager of the Turkey Creek Nature Preserve, has been elected, and should make an excellent addition to our leader list. Carol Adams-Davis, Jonathan Meeks, and Ken Hyche have been re-elected as at-large membes of our Executive Committee. David Norwood has chosen to resign from the ExCom for personal reasons, and will be missed. We thank him for several years as a valued leader of the Chapter.

I might emphasize again that we are always looking for new leaders for the Chapter, as well as the Sierra Club Groups. Some of us have been leading the Chapter for several years, and would gladly step aside for new blood. We need young, energetic environmentalists dedicated to our battle to protect Alabama’s land, water, and air against those who would destroy our natural resources for short-term economic gain. The environment belongs to all of us, and directly affects all of us. So we all should be willing to help protect it.

The year 2015 will bring new challenges and threats to our environment. In addition to the usual concerns such as coal mining and burning, fracking, water pollution, and urban sprawl, we have new threats in Alabama, including possible tar sands mining, pollution from coal ash, additional pipeline construction, and forest clearcutting for production of fuel pellets for shipment overseas. Most of us love Alabama for its rich natural areas and biodiversity, in spite of its severely backward politics. Please do what you can to help us protect the Alabama we love. We need you.

Do Not Sell Alabama's LIMITED Coastal Sand to the State of Mississippi!!

While Alabama Chapter Sierra Club strongly supports the restoration of Mississippi’s offshore barrier islands, we have serious concerns with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposal to obtain 8.5 million cubic yards for that purpose from Alabama’s offshore water bottoms south of Dauphin Island’s western end. http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/Portals/46/docs/program_management/mscip/docs/MsCIP_DSEIS_02-27-14_Final.pdf

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Dauphin Island’s Gulf shoreline has been eroding at an accelerated rate since the early 1960s.  As the lead island in the Alabama-Mississippi barrier island system, an eroding and weakened Dauphin Island will have long term adverse consequences on Mississippi’s islands.

The Governor of Alabama recently announced a $3.6 million Study to restore Dauphin Island would be undertaken with a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.  That study, which will take a few years to complete, will in all likelihood recommend offshore sands be used to restore Dauphin Island’s shoreline.

Offshore deposits of beach quality sands in minable quantities represent a finite resource in Alabama.  Once “mined”, beach quality sands will not be replaced, but instead represent an irretrievable and irrevocable use of a limited resource.  The present Corps’ proposal to restore Mississippi’s barrier islands would use half of the estimated 16 million cubic yards of sand believed to comprise the deposits south of Dauphin Island’s western end.  If that sand is transported to Mississippi, it will no longer be available to address Alabama’s equally pressing shoreline restoration needs.

The Alabama Chapter Sierra Club believes the Corps should have addressed the erosion issues of the entire Alabama-Mississippi barrier island chain as a complete system, instead of ignoring the erosion problems of Dauphin Island, that also influences the condition of Mississippi’s islands, particularly Petit Bois Island.  Until adequate information can be provided to assure our organization that the Corps’ present proposal to take sand from Alabama to use in restoring Mississippi’s barrier islands does not eliminate a viable future option to restore Dauphin Island’s eroding shoreline we oppose the present proposal.

The Electrical Grid, the Clean Power Plan, and Alabama Public Service Commissioner Jeremy Oden

(from David Newton) Sierra Club members will recall that the three members of the Alabama Public Service Commission (all elected statewide) are not known for their support of the EPA, especially the agency’s proposed rules on carbon dioxide emissions from generating facilities that burn fossil fuels, especially coal.  The article below was created as a letter-to-the-editor in response to an opinion piece (published January 21 in the Opelika-Auburn News) by Commissioner Oden in which he was critical of the clean power plan and its impact on the electrical grid.

Oden asserted that the Clean Power Plan is likely to cause an increase in the price of electricity and also threaten the reliability of the power grid.  In summary, Commissioner Oden suggested costs and blackouts are likely to increase.  However, the commissioner did not choose to mention the extraordinary increase in the renewable energy resources in almost all of the country except for Alabama and a few other states.

If we really want to protect Planet Earth, we all must participate in the ever increasing efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and also to increase energy efficiency.  For now, an economic argument appears to be the way to proceed.  Don’t wait!  Get into the fray.  It is important.

Letter to the Editor:

Reference Alabama Public Service Commissioner Oden’s comments (Jan. 21) on the Clean Power Plan and the grid for distributing electricity.

Certainly, there are challenges to increasing the use of renewable energy resources.  In many other states, policy makers and companies are working to meet these challenges.  Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in upgrades for grid related improvements and for building additional generation facilities.

For example, Google has invested a total of $1.5 billion in renewable energy projects, the most recent being a wind farm in Oklahoma and a solar power facility in Utah (Forbes, 1/19/2015).  In December, the Kentucky Public Service Commission approved a 10-megawatt solar project proposed by two Kentucky producers of electricity that will be located within the state.  Also in December, the Georgia Public Service Commission unanimously approved ten solar power purchase agreements totaling 515 megawatts of solar generation (in state) for Georgia Power Company.

This January, the Tampa Bay Times reported Florida’s Gulf Power announced a 120 megawatt utility-scale solar power facility in support (at three military bases) of the U.S. Department of Defense’s goal  of achieving 25 percent renewable energy by 2025.

Readers are reminded that Georgia Power and Gulf Power are owned by the Atlanta-based Southern Company, which also owns Alabama Power Company.

The Alabama Public Service Commission could help us catch up with others by repealing the $5 per kilowatt per month charge (adopted early last year) on citizens who install solar panels in Alabama Power’s service area.

David Newton
336 Carter St.
Auburn, AL 36830
(H) 334-821-9817 

What does Alabama have to do with tar sands and the Keystone XL?

(from Adam Johnston) As all of you hear about the Keystone XL pipeline and Canadian tar sands (nationally and in the media), its important to remember that our home state has much to lose if tar sands projects continue to be developed.  We may not be in the direct pathway of the Keystone pipeline, but believe it or not, Alabama the Beautiful is already being harmed by local tar sands projects and international projects like Canadian tar sands transport.  We do have geological tar sands (bitumen) deposits in the ground of many northwestern counties.  We do have current transport of Canadian tar sands next to our schools, churches, and drinking water supply in Mobile.  We do have state elected officials and leaders continuing to place the greed of big business over the needs of the people.  

From proposals to extract and mine bitumen in NW Alabama to the current transportation of Canadian tar sands by rail, pipe, and boat in Central and South Alabama, our state is facing significant threats to our land, water, air, and peoples' health from one of the planet's most destructive energy projects.  We all live closer to this toxic danger than we think.  We all (in Alabama and most of the developed world) use forms of oil in our daily lives but we do not need to continue to extract and exploit this unconventional and hard-to-extract resource. We all have a role to play to advocate for opposing tar sands activities and similar destructive practices in your city and community.  We all have a role to play in protecting our cities and communities from socially and especially environmentally destructive practices.  May we continue to reach out hand-in-hand to keep Alabama the Beautiful. Contact me if you want to more involved and have ideas, knowledge, time, resources, and enthusiasm.  Below is a small list of relevant articles and associated information for your area.

Al State Leaders' thoughts on tar (oil) sands (7/27/2014): "When it comes to energy, Alabama's future is now: guest opinion" by Cam Ward, http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/07/when_it_comes_to_energy_alabam.html 

Al Tar Sands Threats/Projects & Groups 

NW Al (Florence, Shoals, Russellville area, and beyond): mining, extraction, processing, and transport proposals

  1. "No. 5 story of the year: Tar sands company to pursue area work"Florence Times Daily' Russ Corey, Dec. 26th, 2014  http://www.timesdaily.com/news/no-story-of-the-year-tar-sands-company-to-pursue/article_6e0b59ce-8d81-11e4-a514-8747adfda3fb.html 
  2. "Why A Company Is Buying Up Huge Tracts Of Alabama’s Land And Punching It Full Of Holes" Center for American Progress, Oct 30, 2014 by Kiley Kroh, , http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/10/30/3574743/inside-alabama-tar-sands/
  3. http://saveourshoals.com/, Save Our Shoals
  4. http://sea.tinywebs.org/, Shoals Environmental Alliance
  5. http://www.alabamarivers.org, Alabama Rivers Alliance
  6. http://www.tennesseeriver.org/, Tn Riverkeeper
  7. Southern Environmental Law Center's "Paradise or Profit" is a recently produced documentary by the new film series, Southern Exposure.  Please watch freely as it discusses the tar sands mining and extraction proposals for Northwest Alabama.  

West Al/Tuscloosa: Current transport and refining potential at Hunt Oil, recent oil spill from train explosion, traveling crude on local rails, etc.

  1. "Alabama oil train disaster met with official neglect"The Institute for Southern Studies  http://www.southernstudies.org/2014/01/alabama-oil-train-disaster-met-with-official-negle.html
  2. http://alabama.sierraclub.org/west-al/, West Alabama Sierra group
  3. http://www.hurricanecreek.org/, Hurricane Creekkeeper
  4. http://blackwarriorriver.org/, Black Warrior Riverkeeper

South Alabama/Mobile: Current transport by rail, pipe, and boat (There is much activity already threatening drinking water, residential areas including low-income communities.)

  1. "A high-volume oil pipeline is headed toward Big Creek Lake, and why that's a bad idea (Our view)"Al.com, June 6th 2013, , http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/06/a_high-volume_oil_pipeline_is.html 
  2. "MOBILE, AL IS BULL’S-EYE FOR CANADIAN TAR SANDS AND THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE"GreenPeace Blog, July 12, 2013 by Cassidy Sharp,  http://greenpeaceblogs.org/2013/07/12/mobile-alabama-is-bulls-eye-for-canadian-tar-sands-and-the-keystone-xl-pipeline/ 
  3. Mobile Alabama: A Tar Sands Mecca in the MakingDesmogblog, Sep 27th, 2013, by JULIE DERMANSKY "", http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/09/26/mobile-alabama-tar-sands-mecca-making
  4. https://www.facebook.com/TarSandsOilMobile, Tar Sands Oil Mobile
  5. https://www.facebook.com/mejacoalition, Mobile Environmental Justice Action Coalition
  6. https://www.facebook.com/groups/122820204421761/, Mobile Bay Sierra Club
  7. https://www.facebook.com/MobileALTarsandsAwareness, Mobile, Alabama Tarsands Awareness
  8. http://mobilebaykeeper.org/, Mobile Baykeeper

Save the Date: 17th Annual Alabama Water Rally
February 27-March 1, 2015. Lake Guntersville State Park

The Alabama Rivers Alliance is pleased to announce that our next annual conference, Alabama Water Rally, will be February 27 - March 1, 2015 at Lake Guntersville State Park.

Please contact Alabama Rivers Alliance if you would like to contribute in any way to this year's conference. Below you will find all the needed information to begin your flow towards Lake Guntersville.

What is Alabama Water Rally?

Alabama Water Rally is the annual conference of the Alabama Rivers Alliance. For over seventeen years, this event has brought together over a hundred individual attendees from a variety of backgrounds to share, network, and learn. Participants include agency employees, teachers, elected officials, scientists, lawyers, engineers, concerned citizens, nature lovers, and other eco-minded folks.
What to expect at Alabama Water Rally?

Alabama Water Rally offers workshops from experts on the newest ideas and issues around water and the environment in Alabama. It offers opportunities for life-long-learning as well as a chance to get together to socialize, celebrate our victories, share our challenges, and have a good time. Days are packed with informative education sessions and each night features a different form of entertainment. Learn more>>>